After gritty knocks from Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw and a fiery cameo from Rishabh Pant, Delhi Capitals bowlers ensured that the hard-hitting batsmen of Kolkata Knight Riders do not fire as Shreyas Iyer-led side clinched a 18-run win on Saturday at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The disciplined bowling by Delhi Capitals bowlers restricted KKR to 210/8 in 20 overs.
Even after bringing in Rahul Tripathi in their playing XI for today's game, Sunil Narine was still sent out as an opening partner of Shubhman Gill. The 228-run was very much chase-able at Sharjah but the added psychological pressure on KKR openers to give their team a fiery start was on the cards.
Sunil Narine looked in good touch early on as he smashed Nortje for a boundary but the speedster knocked him over in the very next ball. Narine was expecting a short ball but Nortje bowled a beauty to rattle the KKR opener's stumps and get an early breakthrough for his squad.
KKR now seriously needs to find an alternative for Narine after his consecutive failures in past games. Nitish Rana was the next man in and looked to steady KKR's sinking ship. Veteran spinner R Ashwin, making his comeback after an injury, bowled the third over and went for 15 runs.
Like KKR, even DC bowlers got used to the mayhem in the small ground of Sharjah and Gill and Rana continued to score runs quickly by hitting boundaries. After five overs gone, KKR managed to reach 48 for loss of one wicket.
The runs kept on coming for Rana and Gill and at the end of powerplay, KKR reached 59/1. DC were desperate for a breakthrough and Amit Mishra almost got his wicket by getting a leading edge off his bat but failed to hold on to the ball diving to his right, off his own bowling. He gave away just 2 runs off that over but seemed to injure his hand in the process.
After seven overs KKR were 61/1 and right on track but all they needed was not to lose wicket and score heavily in the middle overs to set the tone for batters yet to come out to bat.
Gill, the man in top form was supposed to bat through the middles but top-edged the ball off Mishra to sky and wicket-keeper Pant bagged a simple catch. The KKR opener departed for 28 runs off 22 balls.
Big man Andre Russell was the next man to walk out to the middle on number 4. KKR's intentions were clear by promoting their biggest hard-hitting batsman up the order with the required run rate going over 13 runs per over.
Speedster Kagiso Rabada was brought back into the attack to bowl the 10th over. Russell joined the party with Rana by hitting a cracking six to Rabada but it was the paceman who had the last laugh as he got Russell caught out for and dismiss him for the first time in the history of IPL.
KKR managed to put 100 on board after 11 overs. Meanwhile, stylish southpaw Nitish Rana notched up his ninth IPL fifty off just 32 balls with his team still needing 122 more runs from 49 balls. But, Rana's (58 runs off 35 balls) well-fought innings came to an end after he holed out to substitute fielder Axar Patel.
Just after Rana perished, Harshal removed skipper Dinesh Karthik (6 runs) off his next ball to take back-to-back wickets. After losing quick wickets, KKR were five wickets down. Pat Cummins made his way in for Karthik but quickly fell for 5 runs with KKR starting to fall apart in the chase.
Rahul Tripathi joined Morgan in the middle. Just when it seemed that it was all over for KKR, Tripathi hit back-to-back sixes to set the tone for chase. Morgan and Tripathi almost took the game away from Delhi with consecutive sixes and boundaries but Nortje ensured Morgan falls after 18-ball 44 with KKR needing 26 runs off last 6 balls.
Stoinis, bowling the last over was welcomed by Tripathi with a boundary but him getting bowled in the next delivery marked the end of KKR's fightback as they lost the match against DC by 18 runs.
Earlier, blistering knocks from star opener Prithvi Shaw (41 runs off 56 balls), captain Shreyas Iyer (88 runs off 38 balls) and a fiery cameo from wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant (38 runs off 17 balls) propelled Delhi Capitals to against Kolkata Knight Riders.
After a great start from Shikhar Dhawan and Shaw, Iyer and Pant showed class and smashed the KKR bowlers all over the field to provide a great finish to their team. KKR's leading bowler Pat Cummins went for 49 runs without getting any wickets in his four overs.